I have to speak on Thursday at the General Meeting in front of parents. I’m decent at public speaking but I always get nervous. And I worry about it before hand. A lot. So lucky you… you get to hear all the little noises going on in my head as I try to flesh out what I’m going to say and cut and paste in parts of my speech. This post isn’t the speech, just me journaling really. But I will use parts of it. The topic is “Why join the PTA?” or “Why volunteer in PTSA?”. And I think I’m going to speak to my own experience.

When I first starting volunteering, I did so because I felt it was expected. On some level, I felt that it would bring me closer to my child. I would be in their classroom and I could experience their milestones from afar. It almost helped lessen the dull ache of leaving them in the hands of another woman for 6.5 hours a day. I think most parents start out volunteering in the classroom. It’s direct and there is instant gratification. I still volunteer in all my kids classrooms because it feels good. But at first it is this desire to be part of their child’s classroom experience that hooks them into the whole volunteer experience. It hooked me. I was doing something. I was giving back. But at the time, I had no idea that I wasn’t serving the PTSA community. I didn’t realize there was a difference.

Somewhere along the way, I realized there was something bigger out there for me. There was a group of parents who like me, wanted something more. Parents who wanted to make their child’s school experience positive and rewarding as possible. I felt it pulling me and trust me I tried to resist. Gah. I was too busy. I had other commitments. I didn’t like parties and or events with a bunch of strangers. I even didn’t think I wanted to be in a “social” organization. I just didn’t want to put myself out there, ya know?

But there was no denying it. Deep seated inside me was a yearning to be a part of something bigger then what I am alone. I wanted to be part of a community. I wanted my children to be part of a community. I wanted to be known and my family to be known. In this world of mass-market everything, we want personalization and the feel good strokes that come from someone knowing you and your family. God do I dare say I wanted to be where everybody knows your name? I began to realize that the way for me build this in my life was to give back. To unite with other parents for a common purpose. The realization was almost spiritual for me. And the path to building those relationships has been rewarding beyond measure.

When I think about what I want from my children’s elementary school experience, my first thoughts of course, go to their education. I want them to get a great foundation in reading, writing, math, as well as the life skills to help them succeed later in life. But on a personal level, I also want something more then that. I want them to be part of a vibrant and supportive community. The type of community where parents are involved, where neighbors help neighbors, where everyone knows everyone and is looking out for each other. If some disaster struck, I want my kids to know who you are and I want to know your kids. I want us to be supportive of each other. The PTSA embraces all these goals.

But what is the PTSA exactly? I find it helpful to think of the PTSA as a coin with two sides. The first side is that the PTSA is a large lobbying and advocacy organization that fights for important stuff like smaller classroom sizes and important issues in Washington and Olympia. Your PTSA membership dollars mostly support this part of the organization. Then there is the second side where local PTSA right here at school. And what we do, is help enhance our children’s education by supporting the school programs in areas like safety calls, emergency preparedness, field trip transportation, etc. I know I was really surprised to learn that the PTSA actually completely funds things like Art in the classroom and Emergency Preparedness. Things I just “assumed” the district paid for!!

But more importantly then just “programs” I realized that the PTSA helps build community. There is something incredibly powerful that happens when you have a group of parents working together for the common goal of making our school a better place for our kids. I am here to inspire you to think about making an investment in our kids and considering giving back to your school community via the PTSA. I think many of us will be together for years and there is just so much to be gained not only for the school and for our kids, but the neighbors and friends we’ll be making for the long term, The investment we make now in getting to know each other, giving back to our school, and getting involved will payoff tenfold down the line!

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